17 Mile House, Sooke

It's vacation time for me, as my mother is in town.  That means lots of sight seeing and lots of eating out.  Which means plenty of blog entries coming up.  If I can remember all the good and bad things about places I have been.

One place is easy.  The 17 Mile House, on Sooke Road.  My mum, the Brunette of my acquaintance and I retired there for a repast after doing a few odd chores in the Brunette's vegetable patch. Mum and I had earlier having circumnavigated the lower end of the island via Duncan, Lake Cowichan and Port Renfrew.  The road between Lake Cowichan and Port Renfrew is fun sort of drive, quiet and narrow, with sweeping turns, narrow bridges and lots of logging trucks.  Makes it interesting to zip down in a fun to drive car.  Which I have.  There's also a big old spruce tree (the Harris Creek Spruce) and the Harris Creek Gorge that are nice places to stop and get in some nature.

But on to the pub.  The 17 Mile House has existed for over 120 years.  Which in Canada is a very long time for a place to be around.  The building was a stopping off point for hunters and sportsmen heading out to the wild west coast of the island.  Now it serves drivers from Sooke and Langford in search of a pub rather than a glittering new music bar.

The furnishings and fittings include an original tiled floor, a large square bar in the middle of the building, and lots of little snugs and nooks to hide away in.  And conspire on how to catch the giant salmon that you just KNOW is out there.

Or you can go into the garden, and grab some sun.  Which we did, in full view of the horseshoes pitch and the volley ball court.  No-one playing either on our visit.  Instead it was a quite backyard with about two other groups in there minding their own business.  So the Brunette and my mother got to chatting over a beer (a Shock Top Belgian White and Guinness) as they'd never met before.

I drank a diet coke, and got to the ordering.  A west coast club with fries, promising smoked salmon and prawns and some lemon pepper cream cheese.  The Brunette ordered the same, while mum indulged her love of fresh Pacific Halibut.

The sandwich was grand, a piled high triple stacked affair with well smoked salmon with plenty of flavour and the sea-touched saltiness of the shrimp going great with the cheese.  The fries were thin cut, and crispy.  Not the grandest in the world, but the sort of fry that you don't notice until they've all been eaten.  You'll not send these fries back for retraining.  But they won't be making the valedictory speech at potato school.

The Halibut was adjudged to be full of flavour, being cooked in a Cajun spice mix.  British Halibut seems to be mushy and bland, while the good stuff out here has a firmness to the flesh that makes it a joy to eat.

So success all around.  Cold beer, hot food, good service, old-style pub.  Go there if on your way out to Sooke, or beyond.